T he Rainbow Montessori School includes three beautiful nurseries and a Junior School all situated in prime locations throughout North West London. Our very first nursery was established by Rainbow’s founder, Linda Madden, in our West Hampstead premises in 1982 and was followed with the opening of a second nursery in Highgate Village the following year and by Queen’s Park in 2009.

Our Junior school was launched in 1992 and is now one of the leading Montessori Junior schools in the Country. We offer an authentic Montessori education to children from 4 through to 12 years old. The independence and self-discipline instilled by the Montessori system of education has enabled Rainbow students to continue onto many of the best secondary schools in the country. We also offer part-time specialist Montessori teacher training via our specialist part-time college: RMTC.

About Rainbow Montessori Junior School

S ituated within our extensive and beautiful Victorian School Building, on a leafy residential road in West Hampstead, our Rainbow Montessori Junior School offers the ideal environment to nurture your child through this important phase of their education.

As they have progressed through nursery education, Montessori children have developed social, intellectual and cognitive skills within a nurturing Montessori environment. At the Junior school these principles are extended with the child’s developing ability to understand and make use of abstract concepts.

This increases both their independence and intellectual development and offers children the maximum freedom to develop within a structured and comprehensive curriculum. Learning becomes progressively more project based as the child develops with children working in small groups or independently.

This allows them to develop more concentration and thoroughness as they begin to explore: the sciences, the arts, culture and the wider world around them. Patterns of learning developed in this stage of childhood produce confident and competent learning in later years.

The interior of our school is bright, beautifully decorated and specifically designed to provide our students with the ideal Montessori environment. All our classrooms are spacious and abide to the traditional Montessori layout, allowing our children to engage in the full range of educational activities expected in a Montessori classroom.

Rainbow classes are organised as multi-aged communities and divided into Elementary 1, Elementary 2, Primary and Preparatory. Older children are encouraged to help younger children before themselves moving to their next, more advanced, `community’. The Montessori classroom promotes a quiet environment, well developed social skills and respect for others ensures that discipline is rarely a problem.

Music and Dance plays a big part in our curriculum and we also offer a wider variety of extra-curricular activities including foreign language and after school clubs such as: Sewing Club, Art Club, Chess Club, Cooking Club and Sports Club. Our Junior school benefits from a huge outdoor play area that includes a playground and a Rainbow Peace Garden. We have a science lab, music room and a storage area for those of you who cycle or use scooters to come to school.

You will find that Rainbow Montessori is a very open and friendly community of teachers, staff, parents and children. We encourage parents to get involved in all aspects of school life and many of our parents end up supporting and creating fun events such as quiz nights and summer fetes through our parent / teacher group, Friends of Rainbow. We also have a Montessori library open to all parents who want to learn more about the education and parenting. Some of our parents even become inspired themselves and end up training to become a teachers at our Rainbow Montessori Training College!

As the children reach the final year of their time with Rainbow, typically approaching 12 years old, we offer specific help and guidance in preparing the children for the transition to secondary school. Rainbow Montessori School is extremely well respected in the London educational community and our children regularly go to (and impress!!) some of the best secondary schools available. Please see our testimonials .